A look into America’s top Haunted House Attractions

Every year Halloween haunted house attractions bring in millions of fans a year to walk through and experience the terror of being inside a real life horror movie, this attraction has attracted such a huge fan base that it becomes a ritual every year to push the boundaries of terror that little bit further than the year before. Jon Schnitzer has put together a documentary exploring the history of haunted house attractions and dwells behind the scenes into the hard work and dedication that goes into creating these Halloween tourist attractions.

HAUNTERS The Movie is a feature documentary by The Brain Factory, about the visionary entertainers who create some of the most popular and notorious haunted houses in the world.

A life-long fan of Halloween and all things horror, Jon Schnitzer (HAUNTERS Director/Producer and co-owner of The Brain Factory) was inspired to document the world of haunting as it becomes increasingly mainstream and spawns a whole new wave of extreme – and sometimes controversial full-contact – entertainment.

“The boom in demand for the wild spectrum of horror attractions we see today is partly in response to people’s desire to get away from sitting in front of their screens and seek out more and more interactive experiences,” says Schnitzer. “But, this movie isn’t just for the millions of hard-core haunt fans. I think the haunters’ stories of personal and financial sacrifice will be strangely inspiring to anyone. Also, HAUNTERS will explore why we love to scare and be scared, what this says about our society and our basic human nature.”

Over the last year of shooting HAUNTERS, Schnitzer gained exclusive access to film some of the most popular and infamous haunts in America – like Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, Knott’s Scary Farm, Delusion, Blackout and McKamey Manor, to name just a few. And, he shot hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes and personal footage of an amazing cast of personalities, including professional and home-haunters, their families, the monsters and the fans who love them.

HAUNTERS The Movie will also include footage shot by the haunters and fans. “There are just so many amazing haunts everywhere and I want to include as many of them as possible, to show the breadth and depth of this phenomenon. Luckily, most haunters are meticulous about documenting their haunts over the years and the haunt community has been more than cooperative to share,” says Schnitzer.

The HAUNTERS soundtrack is already in the hands of Schnitzer’s dream team. Jonathan Snipes (Composer for ROOM 237) will compose an original score. Alexander Burke (Magnolia Memoir & Save Ferris) is the Music Supervisor. We have rights to use 2 songs by DEAD MAN’S BONES (written/performed by Ryan Gosling & Zach Shields).

Now that HAUNTERS is shifting from production to post-production, The Brain Factory decided to turn to Kickstarter to raise some completion funds. Schnitzer says, “It’s risky to go on Kickstarter, but my vision for HAUNTERS is bigger than I can accomplish with my own resources. We hope there are enough haunt fans out there to generate early interest in the film, both to kick in a few bucks and to share the preview with their friends.”